the future is WOW posted:

I assume he meant the deadliest hotel fire in American history, since there are plenty of other building fires that killed many more. For example the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire killed 146 people, the majority of them (123) being women and children. So every time you don't burn to death at work because your piece of poo poo bosses locked you in from the outside you can thank those folks.

Punkin Spunkin posted:

The darkest & guiltiest of at building a giant oven and then calling it fire proof
Like yeah technically it is

quote:

In this vain world of trouble, many accidents occur
I'm going to sing about one, as sad as you've ever heard
It was in Fall River city they were all burned up and killed,
Imprisoned in a factory known as the Granite Mill.

pookel posted:

Didn't firefighters back in those days deploy some sort of trampoline for jumpers to land on? I swear this is what always happened in books I read as a kid.

pookel posted:

Didn't firefighters back in those days deploy some sort of trampoline for jumpers to land on? I swear this is what always happened in books I read as a kid.

quote:

In 1958, a fire department official in Eugene, Oregon expressed reservations, saying that the term "life net" was misleading, and that they should be used only as a last resort.

Henker posted:

Fortunately implosion-type nuclear weapons are extremely difficult to accidentally detonate. That's why there are so many stories of "oops a bomb accidentally fell off the plane" and nothing happened.

pookel posted:

Didn't firefighters back in those days deploy some sort of trampoline for jumpers to land on? I swear this is what always happened in books I read as a kid.

quote:

Firefighters believed that the practical height limit for successful use of life nets was about six stories, although in a 1930 Chicago fire, three people survived jumps from an eighth story into a life net. One suffered a skull fracture, and the other two had minor injuries.[3]

quote:

In November 1910, a fire swept through a factory in Newark, New Jersey, killing 25 people. Among them were four girls who held onto each other when they jumped into a life net. They tore the net apart and were killed.[8] In the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire on March 25, 1911, girls jumped into life nets from the ninth floor with their arms intertwined and the impact ripped the canvas and tore the springs from the frame, resulting in their deaths.[9] In all, 146 garment workers were killed in that fire. During the Hotel Polen fire in Amsterdam on May 9, 1977, firefighters could not successfully deploy a life net in a narrow, congested alley. When a life net was deployed in a more open area, some hotel guests threw their luggage into the net, and were then injured when they jumped. Others were injured when they hit the rim of the net. In all, 33 people died in that fire.[10]

pookel posted:

Didn't firefighters back in those days deploy some sort of trampoline for jumpers to land on? I swear this is what always happened in books I read as a kid.

Nckdictator posted:

At the Winecoff they had nets but they only worked for up to 70 feet, anyone jumping above that simply broke the net.

Nckdictator posted:

the future is WOW posted:

I assume he meant the deadliest hotel fire in American history, since there are plenty of other building fires that killed many more. For example the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire killed 146 people, the majority of them (123) being women and children. So every time you don't burn to death at work because your piece of poo poo bosses locked you in from the outside you can thank those folks.

Cumslut1895 posted:

that'd still dump a lot of energy.

Safety Biscuits posted:

Would suck for the next guy in line though.

TotalLossBrain posted:

I used to work on a nuclear waste cleanup plant. Some of the radiation maps for the high-level waste facility showed up to 300,000 Rads/hr (3,000 Gy) in the black cells. Those were projections, but based on multiple decades of waste characterization so probably pretty decent projections.
A place of no honor indeed.

Edit: Not an operating plant. But hopefully one day it will operate.

Terrible Opinions posted:

This is it happened on the fifth year anniversary of that Date Which Will Live in Infamy. So after the first year or so it's tragedy was mostly subsumed by the earlier one. Similar to if something really bad happened on 9/11 2006.

Arsenic Lupin posted:

Fire codes exist for a reason department:
Yesterday a dance was held at an artists' space in a warehouse, the Oakland Ghost Ship. Because human occupancy, to say nothing of holding events open to the public, was illegal, there was (duh) no fire code inspection, no sprinklers, no marked exits. The second floor was reached by climbing up a stack of wooden pallets. As you can see from the pictures, the space was full of flammable objects, and walking through the space was an exercise in traversing a maze.

There was a fire. So far, nine people are known to be dead, but officials say there may be up to 40 total deaths.

reddit thread.

This sort of thing happens every few years, because complying with building codes and fire codes is both expensive and time-consuming.

Hot Smart ARYAN Girl posted:

Wow that place really did look like a deathtrap.

Hot Smart ARYAN Girl posted:

Wow that place really did look like a deathtrap.

purple death ray posted:

Yeah that looks like an incredibly cool place to chill and listen to music in actually

Arsenic Lupin posted:

Fire codes exist for a reason department:
Yesterday a dance was held at an artists' space in a warehouse, the Oakland Ghost Ship. Because human occupancy, to say nothing of holding events open to the public, was illegal, there was (duh) no fire code inspection, no sprinklers, no marked exits. The second floor was reached by climbing up a stack of wooden pallets. As you can see from the pictures, the space was full of flammable objects, and walking through the space was an exercise in traversing a maze.

There was a fire. So far, nine people are known to be dead, but officials say there may be up to 40 total deaths.

reddit thread.

This sort of thing happens every few years, because complying with building codes and fire codes is both expensive and time-consuming.

Arsenic Lupin posted:

Fire codes exist for a reason department:
Yesterday a dance was held at an artists' space in a warehouse, the Oakland Ghost Ship. Because human occupancy, to say nothing of holding events open to the public, was illegal, there was (duh) no fire code inspection, no sprinklers, no marked exits. The second floor was reached by climbing up a stack of wooden pallets. As you can see from the pictures, the space was full of flammable objects, and walking through the space was an exercise in traversing a maze.

There was a fire. So far, nine people are known to be dead, but officials say there may be up to 40 total deaths.

reddit thread.

This sort of thing happens every few years, because complying with building codes and fire codes is both expensive and time-consuming.

quote:

Hey gang, I know there's a lot going on both in our personal lives and in the greater context of the overall climate of everything seemingly going to poo poo - but if you have the time, I (and the other performers) would really appreciate if you could invite as many of your friends as possible and share this event on your page for maximum visibility.

quote:

the hair stylist for the rave cave salon has unfortunatley called in sick :*(
any qualified individuals feeling like filling in plz dm w pix of yer work!

Arsenic Lupin posted:

I'm expecting that site to go down very soon, unless the owner is dead. Those pictures are a lawyer's dream.

Voices from Verdun posted:

Few stretches of land in Western Europe are as blood soaked as the Verdun battlefield, where 80 years ago 700,000 to 800,000 Frenchmen and Germans were killed, wounded or captured in perhaps the most terrible battle of the Great War. Extending from 21 February to 15 December 1916, it is the longest battle history has ever known. To this day, the land around Verdun is torn and scarred by the war

The battle of Verdun was to sear the memories of all who had fought there. The battlefield was surrealistic in its horrors. Approaching the front, soldiers first noticed the sky which was an unchanging smoky grey, animated at night by fantastic writhing tongues of orange, yellow, red and icy white thrown up by the virtually unceasing artillery barrages. Some 40 million artillery shells were fired over the course of the battle, pulverizing the chalky ground, turning forests into blackened splinters and the earth into a shattered lunar landscape. This continual rain of shells hacked and rehacked bodies, ripped graves open, spewing human limbs and pieces of flesh and bone over the entire field, where they rotted in the open air.

The stench was unbearable. The miserable soldiers of both sides ate, slept and fought among the dead, and the reek of death.

History.com posted:

Of the 800,000 casualties at Verdun, an estimated 70 percent were caused by artillery. The Germans launched two million shells during their opening bombardment—more than in any engagement in history to that point—and the two sides eventually fired between 40 and 60 million shells over the next ten months.

Those lucky enough to survive were often left with severe shell shock from the constant drumroll of falling bombs. “I arrived there with 175 men,” wrote one Frenchman whose unit fell victim to a German artillery attack at Verdun. “I left with 34, several half mad…not replying anymore when I spoke to them.”

Soldiers at Verdun posted:

quote:

"One has to have a strong heart to endure such a martyrdom. This is not war, it's a massacre. Oh! when will it end? It's terrible to see what's happening..."

quote:

"Anyone who has not seen these fields of carnage will never be able to imagine it. When one arrives here the shells are raining down everywhere with each step one takes but in spite of this it is necessary for everyone to go forward. One has to go out of one's way not to pass over a corpse lying at the bottom of the communication trench. Farther on, there are many wounded to tend, others who are carried back on stretchers to the rear. Some are screaming, others are pleading. One sees some who don't have legs, others without any heads, who have been left for several weeks on the ground..."

quote:

"...I stayed ten days next to a man who was chopped in two; there was no way to move him; he had one leg on the parapet and the rest of this body in the trench. It stank and I had to chew tobacco the whole time in order to endure this torment..."

quote:

"It's an unending Hell. I live in a casement at the bottom of the fort with the light on day and night. You can't go out for fear of shell fragments which fall daily into the trenches and onto the fort. In a word, it is solitude in all its horror; when will this veritable martyrdom end?"

quote:

"One poor devil has a wound in his back in which one could sink a man’s clenched fist. He is losing too much blood and has no chance. Another chap, a youngster, is waiting quietly for a dressing to be put on a wound when he is hit again. A razorsharp sliver of shrapnel slices off the fingers of one hand. He goes berserk."

quote:

"Those looking for words like "glory," "honor," and "patriotism" will not find them here; Verdun destroyed these concepts as it destroyed human lives-ruthlessly and eternally."

guy on reddit posted:

There was only one exit. I was on the top floor when the fire started, so I don't know how it got started. I distinctly remember thinking that this probably wasn't a big deal and/or that it was maybe a prank.

After the fire started I walked to the top of the stairs where there was only enough room for one maybe two people to go down at a time. At this point I still didn't think it was a big deal. It wasn't until a girl ahead of me came back up the stairs and yelled that "it's too thick everyone back up to the top." (This may not be exactly what she said but I'm this whole period is kind of a blur it's the gist of it however)

That was when I realized that this was very serious and that I was in big trouble. At this point I realized that my best shot at survival was to find my way down the stairs and and try and find the exit. My decision to go down was a coin flip at that point because I was terrified. The kind of fear I felt was not the kind of fear I have ever felt towards anything in my entire life. This was a primal sort of fear. I very much didn't care about other people making it out as long as I did at this point. Luckily I don't think I smashed into anybody or hit them on my way out. I completely lost track of my two friends during this time period to give an example of how one track minded I was. I feel really bad that I didn't care and I feel like I should have said something to all those people before I jumped down. Maybe give them a fighting chance if they realized that down was the only potential option for survival.

Bear in mind that the time it took for me to first see smoke and reach the top of the stairs before things got really bad was only like a minute.

So once I slipped and slid down the stairs keep in mind that these were the worst crafted stairs ever. (The first bit was like a ramp almost. And then the steps had varying heights sometimes almost coming up to thigh level. I'm 5'9 so while I'm not super tall that's enough for some of the steps to be way too tall for stairs.)

Once I made it down the stairs I tried to crawl to where I knew the exit was. I had a good general idea of its distance from me but I would have to find two doors and to try and get out. Even though I had an idea of where I was because of coming down the stairs the way I stumbled down basically made it so it's very likely that I wouldn't find an exit.

Once I was down there it was awful. I couldn't see or breathe. It was hot smoky and hard to focus. Thankfully at this point it wasn't so hot that I was burning just being there. There were other people crawling around on the floor too.

So I was down there and I was having trouble finding the exit. At this point I genuinely thought I was going to die choking on smoke in these horrid conditions. Part of this was definitely because the lower level is like a loving maze. The stair room had three different exits and only one would have been the way to outside.

So I had only been down on the floor for 15ish seconds. (Even though it genuinely felt like I was down there for eternity.) As I was down there blindly trying to find the door to get out I got really lucky. Some dude who had already gotten out stood right by the exit with all the billowing smoke and was repeatedly yelling "this is the exit" "exit." I can say without a doubt that that dude saved my life. If he wasn't there yelling I would have never found the exit and I probably would have died.

Once I got outside I ran into one of my friends who had been inside. He had been behind me to go down the stairs and had somehow gotten out in front of me. I was so happy that at least we had made it out.

The outside looked to me like a loving warzone. People were covered in soot and crying and hugging each other and screaming. Lots of people were calling out their friends names in an effort to find them. I just kind of stood and there and stared hoping that my other friend had made it out and that everyone would make it out safe.

Once I got out, only two more people made it out after I did.

In around five minutes or so the fire department showed up. by the time they reached the scene the entire building was in flames. For a thirty or so minute period I stood there waiting for the them to try and get people out in the vain hope that my other friend had made it out and that they would be able to get everyone out.

During this time period it really looked like the fire was starting to go down. And there was a chance of saving more lives. Unfortunately everyone's hopes were crushed when in the space of one second the fire got like three times worse. It started coming out the windows and the roof caught fire. I waited there for close to three or four hours hoping that we could get some information about our friend. I still don't know what happened to him or if he's even okay.

Also I should note that the building went up so fast. I'd have to say it was probably 3/4s on fire in under 3 minutes.

I'm really tired and the night is very blurry, plus i'm typing this on my phone so if there are any spelling/ grammar errors and the story isn't very coherent I apologize. I might have messed up some of the details as well. It's also very hard for me to talk about this but I still decided to because I think that my memory of the night is only going to get worse from here.

Xibanya posted:

Mackers posted:

Verdun

Xibanya posted:

Arsenic Lupin posted:

Fire codes exist for a reason department:
Yesterday a dance was held at an artists' space in a warehouse, the Oakland Ghost Ship. Because human occupancy, to say nothing of holding events open to the public, was illegal, there was (duh) no fire code inspection, no sprinklers, no marked exits. The second floor was reached by climbing up a stack of wooden pallets. As you can see from the pictures, the space was full of flammable objects, and walking through the space was an exercise in traversing a maze.

There was a fire. So far, nine people are known to be dead, but officials say there may be up to 40 total deaths.

reddit thread.

This sort of thing happens every few years, because complying with building codes and fire codes is both expensive and time-consuming.

MrFellow posted:

I live in Oakland, and the issue of "residential"/converted warehouses gets kind of complicated.

It's pretty well known (although anecdotal) that the city is aware that there are a lot of people living in converted warehouses that aren't up to code. The problem is that if an inspector shows up and red tags the building, the current occupants will move out, and then almost immediately the place will start to fill up with more transient residents, e.g. the homeless, or crusters, or drug enterprises. This leads to a whole different set of problems, including increased crime, blight, and general bother for the neighbors, all of which is going on in a warehouse that is still not safe for habitation. The City of Oakland has, apparently, decided to look the other way on code violations because they find the second scenario more distasteful than the first (not to mention, city services are woefully underfunded, and I'm positive that there aren't enough inspectors to cover the whole city). I'm in no way trying to slam Oakland's code and fire inspectors--I worked in a warehouse in Oakland, and whenever we pulled a permit for a fundraiser, they required us to submit a whole plan and would show up during events to make sure that we were following it.

I probably don't have to mention that the whole bay area is facing the dual problems of (1) not enough funding for a social safety net and (2) rapidly evaporating affordable housing, which leads to people living in unsafe converted buildings, which often leads to tragedy.